The Cake Cutting Hack That Creates The Worst End Piece

While rectangular sheet cakes may not be too exciting, they have one appealing attribute: Slicing them is simple. Make a few perpendicular cuts to get several neat and square slices. However, slicing is not as straightforward with the gorgeous, round layer cakes seen all over Instagram. The traditional method is to cut them into triangular pieces like a pie, but this yields huge wedges of cake, fewer portions, and the occasional wary guest who asks to make theirs "just a sliver."

Thankfully, plenty of cake-cutting hacks are available from pastry chefs and mathematically-gifted home bakers who see the geometrical possibilities beyond a simple triangular wedge. One hack involves slicing an inner ring into the center of the cake, then serving shallow slices cut from the outer ring. Another method skips the knife for cutting the cake with a wine glass. 

An easier and neater way is one technique shared on TikTok: Cut a round cake down the middle, then make cuts perpendicular to the first one to get several rectangular pieces. This approach is nearly perfect, except for one thing: The end slices are sad, thin, and barely have any cake. What are we supposed to do with those end slices? The beauty of this cake-cutting technique is that it's simple to do, plus slices can be as thick or thin as you'd like. However, by making straight cuts across a round cake, there's no avoiding those end slices.

Some viewers on TikTok suggest that the thin end pieces you get from cutting a round cake in straight cuts are perfect for giving to people at your party you don't like or to the least favorite child in the family. (So mean!) Then again, at least one guest usually insists on having a tiny piece of cake. Or, sometimes, people wish to share a larger slice with someone else. With this cake hack, that end piece seems custom-made for tiny appetites. 

But there's also something delightful about the odd end piece. Most everyone (especially kids) agrees that the frosting is the best part of a cake, a fact made evident by the dry cake stumps that end up in the trash once all the frosting has been eaten or licked away. Take a closer look at the little end-piece wedge of cake from this hack, and what do you see? A whole side covered in frosting, with very little cake attached. Genius! 

Test this hack on your friends and family by slicing a round layer cake at a party: You'll quickly find the biggest frosting lover in the room hovering at your elbow to get that odd little end piece.